OVERVIEW
Ekko has been near the top of 2XKO since launch, and the reasons are simple: he has a sword, so his normals reach further than most of the cast; he has excellent run speed, an air hop and an air dash; and almost every combo he does ends in a limit strike.
That last point is quietly the biggest one. Limit strike builds both Break meter and super meter, so an Ekko player is accumulating resources on every single touch in a way most characters simply cannot.
Tip
Two honest drawbacks. His damage feels low while you are learning — a basic route into limit strike is around 350 — and most of what he does is unsafe on its own. He is not a character who does everything himself; he is a character who does everything behind an assist.
AFTER IMAGE & TIME WINDER
Every one of Ekko’s S2s leaves an after image behind. Press S2 again and he teleports into it — and critically, he can cancel into that teleport from almost anything: normals, throws, mid-super, or raw. A clone on screen is a permanent, looming threat.
Hold S2 and you get a volatile after image instead, which is where the character really lives. Teleporting to a volatile clone makes him dash out of it, and during that dash you can press any move. Mixups, combos, oki, neutral, cancelling out of negative moves — it all runs through this.
- Down S2 with a volatile clone out = Chronobreak — an explosion that wall bounces and hits OTG, so it converts off a grab
- Charged down S2 (Phase Dive) is his fastest way to place a volatile clone, and he is invincible during the roll
- Forward S2 deliberately does NOT teleport you into an existing clone. Learn this early or your routes will yank you across the screen
Tip
Raw S2 (Chrono Strike) is only −5 on block, so the fastest jab in the game at six frames cannot punish it. Charge it and it becomes −1 and always crosses through — and if you cancel that charge into a clone, you are always positive.
Time Winder (S1) is his projectile, and it has two speeds. The fast version has very little hit stun; the slow version has enormous hit stun and gives you a full combo. Down S1 throws it upward, which both extends combos and catches people jumping. All of his heavies hit the Time Winder — and so can the opponent, so watch for it being knocked back at you.
NEUTRAL GAME
The single best piece of advice from high-level Ekko players is less is more. He has so many flashy options that most players drown in them and lose games they should win.
What to avoid:
- Throwing fully charged clones from the top of the screen and diving in with overheads. Good players simply anti-air it every time
- Rolling on block for no reason — it is around −16
- Throwing a down Time Winder in open neutral. He is not actionable for roughly two seconds afterwards, which is an eternity if they are waiting for it
- Forward S1 in neutral — it is very easy to parry. Keep it as a combo tool
What to do instead: use the Time Winder deliberately, press mediums and heavies, and above all get comfortable sitting at the exact range where your medium reaches and theirs does not. Because his mediums are both fast and long, you can hold that range against most of the roster — Yasuo and Ahri being the notable exceptions — and whiff punish everything they try.
His air dash is excellent for baiting anti-airs on jump-ins, and his air Time Winder is a good way to hold space and push people off you.
CORE COMBOS
Button Legend
Two details that break the meterless midscreen route if you get them wrong. You want to barely charge the clone, and after the kick you must hit exactly once in the air — hit twice and the route does not work. Done correctly it carries an enormous distance, roughly three dashes' worth.
In the corner, after you catch them with the jab, go straight to heavy. Medium into heavy technically works but makes the whole combo far harder for no benefit.
The super route is the one worth investing in, because it side switches and it lets you raw tag on any character in the game while keeping your assist. Take the clone with a neutral S2 — a down S2 there will break it.
One nice quirk: Ekko can land his level three after a normal throw, which most of the cast cannot. If both assists are dead and the round is close, sneaking a grab is a genuine win condition.
ADVANCED TECH
The charged S2 parry bait. Opponents learn to parry your charged Chrono Strike on reaction — but you can press S2 just before it connects to cancel it, which beats the parry outright. The genuine counter-play from their side is a long poke rather than a parry, so expect good players to answer it with something like a low medium.
Roll into crossup. Phase Dive crosses up if you are close enough, and it is invincible on the way through. Calling an assist and then rolling forces them to block the crossup while the assist covers you — one of his cleanest ways to start offence.
The frame trap. If you expect them to jab out at the end of your Chrono Strike, cancel into the clone to catch it, and take a full combo for their trouble.
The “burrito” setup is his famous oki: it covers every get-up option, and if they simply block it you are very plus with the install running. From a limit strike S2 in the air, or forward S1 in the corner, it is S2 super, dash back, jump, Time Winder, rewind, throw, rewind again.
Be realistic about it, though. Even high-level players describe it as extremely difficult and inconsistent. The honest counter-play if you are on the receiving end is to assume your opponent cannot do it, because the timing to cover both the back roll and the get-up attack is genuinely tight.
TEAM COMPOSITION
Ekko works with everyone, which sounds like a non-answer until you understand why: almost none of his tools are safe by themselves. His roll, his rushdown, his charged S2 — all of them are punishable raw and all of them become genuinely oppressive with an assist covering the gap. Pair him with anyone and your job is to find which of your partner’s assists makes his unsafe options safe.
His own assists are excellent in return:
- Time Winder assist — freezes the opponent, which is a gift for any point character wanting to start something
- My Time — travels an absurd distance, and it is easy to hear the hit and tag straight into a full combo
His supers each cover a different job. The S1 super is a strong damage level one and, unusually, he can chain more than one into a single combo — he is one of the few characters able to fit two level ones in. Its weakness is that it does not convert well off an OTG, which is exactly the gap a good assist fills.
The S2 super (Tangled Timeline) gives him a constant supply of volatile after images and is one of the best oki tools in the game. Anything you can do with a single volatile clone, you can do repeatedly for its duration — and if you land it on block, the mixups that follow are close to unfair.
His level three hits OTG and cannot simply be mashed against — there is a delay before it becomes parryable. And if Ekko is hit during the animation, he rewinds and counters it.
VIDEO RESOURCES
No Ekko video breakdown on the channel yet — when one goes up it will be embedded right here. In the meantime: